Funnily enough the Greeks have a museum devoted to coins, most of them are old though.

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture Numismatic Museum is housed in the former house of the German Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann and can be found in the middle of Athens, after a lot of searching. It is at 12 El. Venizelou Ave, 106 71, Athens and is well worth a visit as it houses some fantastic personal collections of early coins. It only costs 3 euros to get in and is on 2 levels that only takes about an hour or 2 to go around if you are with family or all day if you are by yourself.

Whatever you do don't touch the glass! there are attendants at each doorway whose sole purpose is to hover and tell you not to touch the glass in a staggering number of languages if you lean over the display cases, they are happy for you to take flash photography, just don't touch the glass.

The souvenir shop is disappointing but then you are in the middle of Athens so there is plenty of other junk to take home.

Well worth a visit, there are other museums in Athens that also have coins in them but this is the best we found.

They display an almost complete collection of Estonian coins and banknotes, together with an explanation about the history of the Bank. Entrance is free.The Bank's coin shop serves as the official sales point of Estonian commemorative coins. Many commemorative coins (silver and gold) dating back as far as 1992 are available. Also the Mint sets are for sale here.

Riyadh: The King Abdul Aziz General Library in Riyadh acquired recently a distinct collection of rare Islamic coins from different places in the Muslim world. The pieces are considered unique or extremely rare. Among the rare coins is the Abbasid dirham, which was issued in the year 140H (757/758AD) in Basra during the period of the Caliph Abu Jaafar Al-Mansour. There is also a gold dinar from the Omayyad period minted in 73H (692/693AD) and a rare Arabic/Sassanid coin minted in Damascus two years later. The library also acquired rarities issued in Makkah, Madinah, Bisha, Sanaa, Amman and other cities. These coins are now part of the collection of about 7,000 at the library and are available to researchers and scholars.

Money Talks at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American HistoryNew Display of Numismatic Rarities

Washington A new exhibition at the National Museum of American History invites visitors to explore the development and meaning behind American coinage and currency. “Stories on Money” demonstrates the interplay among people, money and history, from the earliest times to the present day. The display of coins and other related objects will open June 12 in a new first-floor gallery.

“Stories on Money” explores the museum’s vast numismatic collections from seven vantage points. The main section shows what money looked like in Colonial America and at pivotal times, including the Gold Rush, Great Depression and in the current era. Visitors will compare the coin designs of the 19th century with those produced during the renaissance of American coinage in the early 20th century. The section called “The Power of Liberty,” presents an array of coins from the United States and the world depicting Liberty, the feminine personification of freedom; coins with real and mythological women are also featured.

“American currency is a reflection and a record of our history,” said Brent D. Glass, director of the museum. “This display illuminates history in fresh and unexpected ways and will allow visitors to think of how money tells stories about different historical periods.”

“Stories on Money” was made possible through the generosity of the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America, Numismatic Conservation Services and Monaco Rare Coins.

“Having this wonderful space at the museum is very meaningful to the entire community of numismatists, and we are very proud to be a part of it. ‘Stories on Money’ is an especially fitting exhibition since it illustrates the close interplay between coins as objects and the personal history of their use,” said Mark Salzberg, chairman of sponsoring organizations Numismatic Guaranty Corporation and Numismatic Conservation Services.

“The ‘Stories on Money’ exhibition explores the importance of our country’s sovereignty, heritage and financial independence,” said Adam Crum, president of Monaco Rare Coins. “The beauty of the coins speaks for itself, but the history witnessed by these miniature objects is often epic.”

The exhibition draws from the museum’s National Numismatic Collection, which consists of more than 1.5 million objects, including coins, medals and paper currency and preserves the role of money in economic history. Featured objects include a colonial Massachusetts shilling from 1690—the first paper money in the Western hemisphere, the unique 1849 $20 gold coin and a clam shell used as currency during the Great Depression.

The exhibition uses objects and interactive media to immerse visitors in these stories on money, including an opportunity to view enlarged images and delve further into numismatic history. In “A penny for your thoughts?” visitors can cast their opinion about the future of the most-produced coin in the world.

Two books based on the National Numismatic Collection have been published in conjunction with the exhibition. Exhibition curator Richard Doty’s “America’s Money, America’s Story” and “The Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins” by visiting researcher Jeff Garrett substantiate the scholastic value of the National Numismatic Collection. Doty and Garrett, a lifelong coin collector, have spent their careers working in numismatics and have written several books on the subject.

Yes, what you see (in the picture) is a very small foretaste of what you get (in the museum). No appointment necessary. This is a coin cabinet as I like it. Educational for kids, beautiful stuff for parents, dream coins for collectors. I spent five hours taking everything in.

When I visited, there was a special exhibition of Ashanti gold on the occasion of Ghana's 50th independence anniversary. Here's an view from two angles of a case of sculpted gold weights. There's a king on a throne, a crocodile, a woman preparing food and a steamy sex scene, among the exhibits. Dazzling.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inagurated Tuesday the Bank Indonesia Museum at Jl. Pintu Besar Utara, West Jakarta, which documents the history of the central bank since its establishment in 1953.

Located next to the Bank Mandiri Museum, and across from the busy Kota Station, the BI Museum occupies a 100-year-old culturally preserved building that once belonged to the Dutch administration’s Javasche Bank.

The government decided to name the building a historical heritage site to prevent it falling into disrepair.

During the inauguration ceremony, Yudhoyono urged the Jakarta administration to keep supporting and facilitating efforts to preserve cultural heritage sites in the capital, which he said would help develop the country’s culture-based creative industry.

The BI Museum boasts modern technology in its displays. It features, among others, a Transition Room, a theater and a History Room, where visitors can learn the entire history of the bank; as well as a Gold Monetary Room and Numismatic Room in which its collections of gold and money are kept.

Boediono, Yudhoyono’s running mate in the July 8 presidential election, was the central bank’s last governor.

The historical monument Palace of the National Bank of Romania was built between July 1884 and June 1890. The project was elaborated by the architects Cassien Bernard and Albert Galeron. By a decision of the General Council of the National Bank in 1914 has been constituted the museum. It was organised since 1933 and the first exhibition of the museum was opened in July 1943.

Inside the building the viewers can see numismatic series issued by the National Bank of Romania, parts of major importance, bank means and a galery of the bank governors.

The side ships host ten large showcases with numismatic exhibits (banknotes and coins for the most part), in a chronological presentation, eight panels that support the messages the speech developed by the large windows (maps, drawings, texts, etc.) and eight piramidal prismatic cases with parts of a great numismatic value.

The alveolar halls are proud to host the governors galery, replicas of gold and silver bars and five showcases that present to public view the interwar publications of the National Bank of Romania.The thesaurus room presents in perimetral showcases coated with marble parts of great artistic value like rare gold coins, molds and gold bullions.

The desire and duty of the National Bank to maintain the quality of the first monetary and financial institution of Romania, the return to positions held prior to the year 1946, written from the begining in statute, reinstate in discution the rights of it's values, wasted in the last half century.

The Belgian central bank (BNB) has a money museum in downtown Brussels, close to the cathedral. Have not been there yet; ah well, maybe later this year. But its website http://www.nbbmuseum.be/ provides a lot of info in four languages (nl, fr, en, de). Also try the Virtual Tour ...

Museum of the National BankWildewoudstraat 10 rue du Bois Sauvage

Tue-Fri: 10-18 h, admission fee €5Sat-Sun: 10-18 h, free(Seems that in July and August admission is free even on weekdays.)

Don't think they have a lot of coins on display there; my impression (from browsing the website) is that the museum focuses on how money works. May well be interesting though ...

The museum was instituted in 1940 and has since made every effort to incorporate every aspect of the lifestyles of Assamese community. The reconstructed tribal huts where one can walk right through them and examine them are result of such efforts.

It is one of the biggest multipurpose museums in the country. The museum has separate sections for archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics and iconography.

Open from 10 am to 5 pm (summer) upto to 4.30 pm (winters) and closed on Mondays, IInd & IVth Saturdays. The museum permits photography only after obtaining permissions.